Monday, December 31, 2018

Part 6 of our Good Fortune Mystery was released on Friday, and here it is Monday and I have seen from so many of you that you were able to kick out this clue over the weekend, if not all in one day. HOORAY for easy clues that fall between major holidays. It does my heart good to know that so many of you were able to squeeze in some machine time.

The neutrals you are using in part 6 are so wonderfully varied – each photo was a treat for these old eyes!

I do want to stress FIRMLY once again – for those using ONE PIECE OF YARDAGE as their neutral to WAIT before cutting into that fabric for part 6. DO NOT CUT YOUR YARDAGE if you are not string piecing or strip piecing from multiple fabrics.

I will not be held responsible if you have cut your fabrics, ignoring what I have said and find that you wish you hadn’t later. This just applies to those using ONE PIECE of neutral as their background. Please folks – if you must cut something, go cut something else – like a UFO project or something.

Sunday, December 30, 2018

I love – I mean deeply, absolutely, positively ADORE the old quirky door frames and the variety of mismatched doors of various sizes – none of them the same – at Quiltville Inn.

Some of them have been repaired with added bits and pieces holding them together – the door knobs also varying throughout the house. A hodge-podge of 135 years of living under this roof.

And while “shabby chic” and “chippy” are the in-thing with farmhouse style decorating, I’m just not one to faux-shabby anything. I like to think of what the original owners may have preferred to see in this grand old house. Given the choice – would they want chipped up paint with sanded and roughed up corners to make it look “vintage?” Heck, no!

And since most door frames, doors, moldings and base boards are going to take at least two coats if not three, just pick up a brush and get busy with it. Make the rounds. Then come back again in a day or so and do it again.

Saturday, December 29, 2018

I have counted on the holidays to bring me that “down time” that I need – but there has been LITTLE machine time over the past week. Still, I was able to crank out some more purple triangles where I was running low for a current project. Pieced one evening, and then pressed the next. It’s amazing what you really can do with an hour here, an hour there making you realize you CAN accomplish quite a bit in small bites of time.

Not that I’m getting cranky or anything – There are other things that I have longed to have time to do – and to be able to do them as a family has been a great experience to date.

It’s become our daily ritual – wake up, watch the sunrise, have breakfast. head down to the cabin studio to sit at my computer and type out that morning’s blog post, or write a mystery clue, or work on class supply lists for the coming year, or answer emails of a variety of natures – and by 9:30am I’ve been in the van, Sadie in tow – heading 7 miles up the road to Quiltville Inn to continue on with the next item on the renovation list.

Thursday, December 27, 2018

I am surrounding the recycled shirt nine-patches with purple bonus triangles to go in along with the red ones. This is going to be fun – when I can get time to get back to it!

For now, sewing is on the back burner as we work on doing some of the much needed fixes at Quiltville Inn.

Coat 3 has been brushed on to the kitchen cabinets – FINALLY looking the way they should.

There has to be a life lesson in that – take it slow, there is no rushing. It can’t be done all at once, but in smaller bites. Bit by bit things will even out.

The bathroom cabinets have received coat 2 – and I ran out of paint, so another trip to Lowes was made last evening. I think we are getting to be on a first name basis with these folks – all roads lead to Lowes!

Tuesday, December 25, 2018

This is a very short post, as our goal today as a family is to spend time together in the same room, not apart in our own corners of the cabin each attached to our own mobile devices and computers.

There are favorite old movies to watch. There is a pumpkin pie baking in the oven for tonight’s dessert – filling the cabin with spicy hints of cinnamon and nutmeg, and Christmas music is playing through the sound bar via my favorite holiday channel – James Taylor Holiday.

A family funny – did you catch that the presents are wrapped using electrical tape to hold the paper on? When you live this remotely, it isn’t possible to always just go buy scotch tape. This was The Hubster’s doing. Whatever could be found on his work bench was what had to be good enough.

Monday, December 24, 2018

Things have finally settled down here at Quiltville – spending time at our cabin in the mountains of Southwestern Virginia just fills me to the brim and rounds out all of my rough edges and mis-matched points don’t seem to matter as much. LOL.Wherever you are, and however you are spending the holidays, may your corner of the world be lit by a little more hope, a little more joy, a little more patience and love for those we share this beautiful planet with. You have enriched my life beyond measure – and I am so grateful for this time of year and our mystery quilt adventures that bring us closer together as we work to bring these clues to a fine and wonderful finish. Soon, my friends – so very soon!

Sunday, December 23, 2018

I arrived in Virginia yesterday afternoon, the van full to overflowing with groceries, quilt projects, items for Quiltville Inn – my clothes for a week, my backpack with my laptop and busy bag – It’s full on Christmas mode time.

There is a definitely “elevation line” as I climb up and over the mountains on highway 16 leading north out of Wilkesboro, North Carolina. the road rises steadily through Miller’s Creek, through Wilbur (also nicknamed “the flats” by us) - and up toward the Blue Ridge Parkway before finally reaching Jefferson, NC and onward to the Virginia state line.

The roads were clear with no snow until just before the parkway – By the time you have gone under the parkway overpass, temps have dropped 10 degrees from the high 40s to into the 30s and snow is still visible along the sides of the road, in yards, fields, farms, and definitely on the mountains in the distance – the remains of 20’’ of snowfall a couple of weeks ago.

Thursday, December 20, 2018

And SOMEONE is going to win this delicious December Quilty Box featuring Quantum fabrics by Giuseppe Ribaudo, AKA Giucy Giuce! I am so excited about this fabric – rich tone on tone geometrics which are an absolute favorite for me.

I follow Giucy on Instagram and he is quite the character and always keeps me entertained with his travels, and especially his video stories. I feel like I am right there in the middle of his life and he is talking to me – I never know what he is going to come up with next!

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

All of our snow is gone after this weekend's round of heavy rain, and a few days of temps in the 50s. I hope that is the last I see of that white stuff for a while.

My favorite size of half-square triangle just happens to be the Bonus Unit size –measuring 2’’ and finishing at 1 1/2’’. It’s the PERFECT size for loads of triangle punch. They are not too big, not too small, and easily made with 2’’ strips from the Scrap User’s System so it is easy to pull in loads of variety – the more the merrier!

I had stitched these on a previous round of night time sewing, but they’ve sat for a while as my evenings have been hijacked of late.

My promise to myself of studio time meant that I could move on to my next step – simply sew these to neutral 2’’ squares. I have a plan – but it’s a slow growing one.

Still – any step forward, no matter how slow is still measurable progress, right?

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

It was from my love of blended quilts phase. Florals and busy backgrounds with some stripes, plaids and other parts pieced together strippy fashion for ME as the only female in a house full of men-folk.

This was long before quilt patterns and book writing and magazine columns and world wide travel for teaching and lecturing. Times were so much simpler then.

Though, as I really examine what was going on in my life during the making of this quilt I am brought back to the time when both of my boys (one in middle school and the other in high school) were both suspended on the SAME DAY from two different schools for two different offenses and I didn’t think I could survive being a parent either!

Monday, December 17, 2018

It seems the time between each PART release on Friday and our Link-Ups on Monday are getting closer and closer together – just where does the in between time go?

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and found some time in between the holiday hubbub for some baking, some visiting, for some reflecting on Christmases past, and was able to squeeze even just a little bit of sewing time in!

My favorite part of the weekend was popping in at odd moments to check out our #quiltvillemystery and #goodfortunequilt tags on Instagram, as well as thumbing through the feed in my Quiltville’s Open Studio group on Facebook and see what YOU were doing! The excitement is building with how all of this is going to fit together, and it brings me so much joy.

We gave you FIVE options on how to do Part 4. Which one did you choose?

Saturday, December 15, 2018

It was a wonderful quiet evening of hand quilting on Jason’s hexie quilt – the main red/green Christmas decor hanging out in my living room right now!

Stitching happened to Mowgli on Netflix followed by a round of Blue Bloods accompanied by popcorn on the stove – there is NOT a packet of microwave popcorn to be found in this house. Once you’ve made real popcorn, there is no going back.

Thursday, December 13, 2018

See that stamp in the corner? This is when I was using up the last of my Net-Stamps for first class postage a year ago.

Evidently – Yours Truly, in a mail-order-induced-zombie-state-of-automation, stuck a US stamp on a package needing to arrive in South Africa which evidently wouldn't, couldn't and didn’t get there with first class domestic postage.

Well, DUH! Hanlie Van Zyl, if you are reading this – do you remember this lost shipment? We thought her package was gone-forever-never-to-be-found and I sent a second one – and it turns out that this one never left the good ole USA.

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

This is the valentine runner that Mona quilted a few weeks ago. She had no idea when she was designing this that it was going to require a tiny bit of an adjustment when applying binding since the corners were roughly 60 degree instead of 45 degree.

And since I was teaching HER how to do it, I thought this might be a good way to share a couple of hints with you just in case you want to bind something with odd corners.

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

These are the faces of three very happy friends who met up for a round of antique mall wandering and lunch out to celebrate the closing of the North Carolina cabin ---happily in the hands of new owners who will love it as much as we did. In fact, I’m wondering if they were up there for the snowpocalypse that befell this corner of North Carolina, Virginia and beyond and how they fared.

Sunday, December 09, 2018

A big snow dumping this early in December is not a usual occurrence in North Carolina. Sometimes we get a light dusting in January, or perhaps some freezing rain (that always takes the power out) in February – but this is a solid several inches, and it is still coming down.

Saturday, December 08, 2018

How did I end up here? Well let me tell you, it wasn’t intended! Not exactly.

We finally sold the North Carolina Cabin (1 1/2 years after moving out!) and our closing was yesterday morning in Jefferson, North Carolina.

Mona and I finished up as many book orders as we could and headed out at 3pm on Thursday afternoon – she to her home in Boomer, and me – planning on spending the night at the Virginia cabin, so I would only be a short 30 minute drive from Jefferson for the closing, instead of fighting Friday morning traffic through Winston Salem, and have a 2 hour morning drive on a morning that also needed Part 3 of Good Fortune released, and another 500 copies of String Frenzy as wave 4 entered the Quiltville Store.

No, that would be too much to do in one morning and expect to be in Jefferson by 10am, not to mention that I’d sign for the closing and turn right around and drive another 2 hours home? There had to be a better way.

Thursday, December 06, 2018

She arrived mid-afternoon to spell Jeff who had his other job to go to – she set right in and got busy with learning the ropes of order pulling, invoice matching, packing and postage sticking while I did the job of signing and printing postage from my end. We are making a great team –

And that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any opportunities for laughter and a few “Oooopss – this postage label doesn’t match the name on THIS PACKAGE!” moments!

Getting closer toward 5pm, after the post office was closed and there was a bit of daylight left, Mona spied a package just as I was printing the label -

“Hey!” She said – “Isn’t Kernersville, North Carolina close to here?!” “Yes!” was my answer ---

And I looked at the label.

And right then and there Mona said “We should get in the car, and deliver this order to this lady and surprise her!”

Wednesday, December 05, 2018

This is a shot from the little front room toward the dining room where “Quiltville Mail Order Central” is happening – oh, my goodness is it ever happening!

And it isn’t just from within these walls. I’ve got my postal person bringing me more tubs as they pick up more outgoing mail from my doorstep – she is intrigued and amazed that we are doing all of this from wihin a seemingly unremarkable little 1970s bungalow.

Remember the movie "Ground Hog Day" where the main character wakes up to find he is in the same day again? Yep! That's pretty much it over here! LOL!

Tuesday, December 04, 2018

I am celebrating with my friend Carol Dean Jones about her re-release of her wonderful Cozy Quilting Series of novels, now published by my own publisher C&T!

I first met Carol Dean Jones when she approached me asking if she could use the background photo from one of my Quiltville Quotes as the cover of her book.I replied that I took the photo with my phone, and I wasn’t sure if the resolution would be high enough. She said she could doctor it a bit, and before I knew it, This lovely shredded hexagon quilt became a cover.

Monday, December 03, 2018

There is so much sharing going on using our hash tags #quiltvillemystery and #goodfortunequilt! I have loved flipping through and seeing what you are doing. I’ve found new folks to follow, I love exploring our quilter’s world and seeing what is going on in your lives – not just with the quilts, but with family, kids, pets, house remodelings and life in general.

Sunday, December 02, 2018

I’ve made a rule for myself. I don’t care what is left in the queue to get out – by 8pm I am DONE.

Let’s face it, no one is any good after staring at a screen for more than 13 hours. Mistakes happen, and I’d rather make mistakes of the kind I can pick out with a bit of seam ripper action, not postal problems by signing a book to the wrong person, and mailing it to someone else, or shipping the wrong book or item – oh boy!

Saturday, December 01, 2018

Here I am with the staff of Studio Stitch in Greensboro, NC – a short 1/2 hour drive from me, but in a side of town that I rarely wander to because Winston Salem is closer to home.

It took months and months of planning to find a time when Elizabeth (on the far left) was at the shop, and I was in town with free time to head over to pick up something that she had been saving for me for months – read on to see!

It’s been a while since my feet have wandered through a quilt shop door – I’m thinking of the day I had in Nebraska and wandered around with Stacey in her big ole pick up truck.

Did I visit a shop while in Indiana for my last foray of teaching in 2018?? I don’t think so. (And it’s really bad that I can’t remember…LOL!)